


Five Times Iris Got The Big Interview (And One Time She Was The Big Interview)

by asimaiyat



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DCU (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Iris-centric, White Martians, justice league - Freeform, kind of an AU, you can get the rest from context, you only really need to know the Flash tv show
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:09:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7654975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asimaiyat/pseuds/asimaiyat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When aliens attack Central City and powerful heroes step in to defend the Earth, Iris West isn't going to let anything stop her from being where the action is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Times Iris Got The Big Interview (And One Time She Was The Big Interview)

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for The Flash Ladies' Month on Tumblr. The prompt for today (well, yesterday, since I finished this late oops) was stories about Iris' career as a journalist. Westallen is more in the background for most of the story, since the focus is on Iris' work.

1.

 _WALLY_ Iris texted, jabbing one recently manicured finger, already showing signs of nail biting, into her phone’s touchscreen. _You better pick up this time_. She added a couple of knife emojis for emphasis. After calling her little brother twelve times and getting his voicemail every time, she thought it might be necessary.

 _alright just don’t freak out_ came the reply a few seconds later, and she hit the dial button immediately. 

“Hey, just let me —“ Wally started, sounding a little alarmed.

“Nope,” Iris cut him off. “I’ve been interviewing witnesses to that — whatever it was downtown today. Everyone says it wasn’t just the Flash who was there, there was another speedster too, with a red and yellow suit. One guy had a cell phone video. Of you.”

“I was going to tell you, really. You and Dad. It was just kind of an emergency today, with those monsters or aliens or whatever they were. I really didn’t plan on going out and doing anything without telling you guys first.”

“You had a suit. That kind of makes it look like you’d been planning on it,” Iris pointed out through her teeth. She knew that she wasn’t really mad, just scared. Having both her boyfriend and her brother out there risking their lives was… a lot to deal with. 

“Yeah, Cisco said he’d made it for me just in case. I mean, it’s pretty tight though, right? Not that I’m just trying to look cool.” There was a pause and a deep breath. “Barry really needed my help out there. I wasn’t gonna let him fight those things alone.”

Iris sighed. “I know… you wanted to do the right thing, and I admire that. I’m just worried about you.”

“Don’t be. I’m tough and fast, I’ll be fine.” 

“Just be careful,” she replied firmly. “And oh… do you have some more time? Because I’ve got a lot more questions that my eyewitnesses couldn’t answer. They said it was like normal people just suddenly turned into monsters? Is that what happened?”

2.

This was Iris’ first time on another Earth, and she had to admit she was curious, even though she didn’t have time to look around much. Harry and Cisco had already given her and Barry a laundry list of warnings about what not to do and how important it was do find out what they needed and get right back. 

That said, nothing seemed that different from home, and the girl Barry introduced to her as his “alien friend Kara” looked… kind of disappointingly normal, to be perfectly honest. Your standard cute blonde white girl in a sweater set, welcoming them into a Pinterest-perfect one-bedroom apartment just like one of Iris’ friends might live in. She smiled and hugged Barry, and then turned to Iris with her arms outstretched and a quizzical tilt to her head, like she wasn’t sure how to ask where Iris stood on hugging. Iris answered the question for her by stepping forward and embracing her, partly because anyone who made that good an impression on Barry had to be okay, and partly because Kara was the only person she’d ever heard of who had any claim to knowledge about shapeshifting aliens. Even though it was hard to believe that this girl had any connection to the giant red-eyed, white-scaled monsters that had torn up downtown Central a week ago. She led the two guests inside and brought out a little mismatched tea set, resting it on the coffee table when the three of them all sat on the couch. Iris poured herself a cup of tea.

“It’s really good to meet you, Kara. Barry said you work in the media too?”

“Well, I’m an assistant, not a reporter like you, but yeah! So this conversation is off the record, right?” Kara laughed nervously, and Iris smiled.

“I can’t exactly cite a source who has no record of existing in our dimension, so yeah. Consider this deep background. Last week our city had an attack from, well…” She pulled out her phone and found the picture that someone had managed to snap of the monsters in the middle of fighting with Barry and Wally. 

“Witnesses said they just looked like normal people walking around, and then they transformed into these… things. They aren’t metahumans like Barry, and the DNA sample we managed to get didn’t look like anything our scientists had ever seen before. So we’re thinking… aliens?”

Kara’s eyes widened when she saw the picture, and she nodded solemnly. “White Martians, probably. They can shapeshift and appear human, and they’re incredibly powerful.”

Barry wrinkled his nose. “I’m sorry, Martians? But NASA has pretty much confirmed that there’s no— ” Iris elbowed him in the ribs.

“Okay, Barr, but we’re here to listen to the alien tell us about aliens. What else do you know about these White Martians?”

“Honestly? Not a lot.” Kara frowned. “I work with someone who’s kind of an expert, but he probably isn’t going to want to talk to, you know, the press.”

Iris nodded and took a sip of her tea. “Okay, I can understand that, it’s kind of… a sensitive subject. But our Earth might be dealing with a threat that we’ve never faced before, and we need to know what we’re dealing with.” She leaned forward and took one of Kara’s hands in both of her own. “If these White Martians can look like anybody, that information alone could cause a mass panic, people turning on each other… if we can just learn a little bit more, maybe we could keep things under control. And you’re kind of our only hope to do that.”

Kara bit her lip and looked doubtful for a minute, glancing between Barry and Iris, but eventually she cracked a small smile. “Okay. I’ll see what I can do.”

When the three of them walked into the DEO office, Kara held up both hands as guards surrounded them. “Guys, hey! It’s okay. These are Iris and Barry, they’re my friends. We’re going to have to talk to Hank.”

3.

When Bruce Wayne entered the room, Iris silently drew a deep breath. He was one of those people who just have an aura of power, and he was even bigger and better-looking than he seemed in pictures. And he was definitely annoyed. Iris sat up a little straighter, pen and notepad at the ready, as Wayne turned to his receptionist.

“I said no meetings today.”

“She, uh, wouldn’t leave, sir. She said it’s an emergency.” The petite woman looked down at her desk guiltily.

“It’s not her fault,” Iris agreed, standing up. “She tried to get me to go away. But I really need to talk to you. Iris West, Central City Picture News.” She held out a hand to shake, hoping the business tycoon would appreciate the confident approach. He gave her a (very firm) handshake, but he still looked mad. 

“I don’t have time for interviews right now, Miss West. You’ll have to set something up with my PR rep.” 

“I tried that. She said you’re booked through 2018.” Iris stepped in front of him, trying to keep him from just brushing past her. “Mr. Wayne. Every new satellite office of Wayne Enterprises in the past five years has been built in a city undergoing a period of unexplained and disturbing phenomena. Suppressed reports of superhuman beings, alien attacks, bizarre crimes… and now you’re setting up a new office in Central City.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Wayne, clearly I should have called security,” the receptionist said with a rude look at Iris, but Wayne looked like he’d seen a ghost. 

“No need for that… Miss West, I think I do have time to talk briefly. _Briefly_.”

Iris followed him into his office before he could change his mind.

4.

“Hey! Ma’am! Iris West, Central City Picture News! I have some questions for you about — can you please _slow down_?” Iris was glad she’d worn flats on the night she ended up catching a woman using some kind of supernatural power to fight one of the White Martians to a standstill, raking the thing with powerful but invisible claws until it fell to the ground and shrunk back into a roughly human-sized form. Then the woman had easily slung the creature over her shoulders, murmured something under her breath and started to run, maybe not Speed Force fast but still way too fast for Iris to catch up. She’d lead her on a chase down the back alleys of the neighborhood, always a few yards ahead.

Just when Iris had started to pant and wonder if she’d have to give up, though, the woman stopped and turned around. “Iris West,” she said carefully. She was beautiful, and definitely strong as hell, and she was wearing a black and yellow catsuit that looked like the same kind of high-tech material as Barry and Wally’s. “I’ve heard your name before.”

“Oh… I’ve had a few headline stories in the Picture News, that’s probably it. I’d really like to talk to you about what happened tonight. I won’t try to figure out your identity or anything if you want to keep it private, but — what did you just do?”

“Magic,” the woman said, and laughed. “It’s…. kind of a family trait. One of the only things that’s actually worked on these bastards.”

Iris blinked in surprise. “You mean it’s magic like really advanced science, or something from another world —?”

“No, I mean magic. It’s only as complicated as you make it.” The woman shrugged, shifting the weight of the unconscious Martian draped over her shoulders, and something moved in the shadow of the building behind her. Iris reached for the .22 in her purse, before the Green Arrow — Oliver Queen, though she probably wasn’t supposed to know that — stepped out of the shadows.

“Come on, Vixen, we don’t want that thing to wake up before we’ve got it contained,” he said gruffly, before noticing who she was talking to. “Iris?”

“Just following a story,” she said. “Where are you taking it? Your island facility?”

“How do you know about — _Barry,_ ” Oliver grumbled. Iris didn’t deny it; it wasn’t her fault her boyfriend couldn’t keep a secret to save his life. “No, not there. But we’re going to need the Flash’s help on this one, so you’ll find out soon enough. _Off_ the record.”

“Wait, did you say your name is Vixen? That’s V-I-X —?” she called as the two vigilantes disappeared back into the shadows. 

5.

“Okay, whatever you’re going to tell me is going to have to explain _a lot_ ,” Iris declared as she stepped out of the elevator into the S.T.A.R. Labs cortex, where Barry had asked to meet her. He was standing there in his Flash suit with the cowl pulled down, looking a little sheepish.

“I know, things have been super weird lately. But I have some people I want you to meet. We’ll… see if they actually feel like explaining anything.” Barry rubbed the back of his neck, and Iris smiled and leaned in to give him a quick kiss. She felt lucky to get to see both his badass superhero side and his cute dorky side, sometimes both at the same time.

“You just have to not freak out, okay?” Barry said as he led her through the corridors of the lab toward what had once been the boardroom, which hadn’t been used since before the particle accelerator explosion. _Don’t freak out_ … she’d been hearing that a lot lately. But when Barry opened the door, she had to try really hard to keep the advice in mind.

Sitting around the boardroom table were a very impressive-looking group of people in costumes. There was Oliver in his Green Arrow suit, with Black Canary and the woman who’d called herself Vixen. And the two Hawks were there, Kendra and Carter. She was surprised to see that Kara Danvers, in her Supergirl suit, and the man who’d told her to call him J’on J’onzz were there too, as well as a big, dark-haired man Iris didn’t recognize whose suit matched Kara’s own. There were others, too, who she’d never seen before. And at the head of the table sat Batman, who she’d honestly thought until now was an urban legend. He looked huge and kind of terrifying in his black cowl and cape.

“So, uh, this is Iris,” said Barry awkwardly as he led her in. “And Iris, this is, well, the team.”

“The team? How long have you all been working together?” she asked, not sure if she was more concerned that Barry was keeping things from her or excited that this was going to be be _the biggest story of her life_. That is, unless they were going to swear her to secrecy.

“We’ve all teamed up with each other on an unofficial, occasional basis for a while now,” Batman said in a gravelly voice that struck Iris as weirdly familiar. “Since the arrival of the Martians on this Earth I’ve been working to organize a more long-term partnership. A way to not only stop these threats as they happen, but to plan to keep the Earth safe from whatever else might come this way.”

“And to let people know that there’s someone on their side,” Kara piped up from the other end of the table. “Iris, what you said really stuck with me. I’ve seen what happens when people are scared and don’t know what’s going on. We all have. And if we can show the world that we’re working to defend them, maybe that will inspire people to stick together and fight for each other, too.”

“And that’s why I invited you to meet everybody,” said Barry to Iris, who was taking notes furiously. “We decided that people should know that we’re here for them. So uh, if you want a story…”

“Oh my god. Yes. This is great,” Iris said half to herself, scanning the room again. “I have so many questions. First off… do you all have a name for this team?”

“Well,” said the Black Canary. “We were thinking we like the sound of the Justice League.”

+1. 

“So after you broke the historic story of the formation of the Justice League, you just happened to be in the middle of this… intergalactic battle? Can you tell me what that was like?”

Iris uncrossed and recrossed her legs toward the reporter sitting opposite her. She felt a little self-conscious; TV journalism was definitely not her element. “‘Intergalactic battle’ is a little bit of a stretch, Wendy. But sure, of course. As you know, the attacks from the White Martians had been escalating over a period of about two months, mostly concentrated in the Central City area. My source within the Justice League had told me that their theory was that the Martians were trying to access the energy left over from the particle accelerator explosion to create a kind of portal, sort of like a hyperspace… jumping-off point.”

“Again, I have to ask who your source is with the Justice League.”

“And again I have to say sorry, but I can’t reveal my sources.” Iris shook her head. “Anyway, I was investigating the area around the S.T.A.R. Labs building looking for signs of Martian activity, when I saw some individuals in hooded windbreakers and ball caps carrying what looked like high-tech equipment around, looking like they were building something. I made a quick call to the League, but one of the Martians heard me and changed into his true form, and they attacked me.”

“Wow. That must have been scary,” said the reporter, and Iris tried not to roll her eyes.

“Honestly, in the moment I wasn’t really scared. It just happened so fast. I went for my gun right away — I have my CC license, don’t worry — but obviously that doesn’t really do anything, they’re sort of covered in armor. But then the Flash got there, and the Green Lantern and Supergirl were there a second later, and it turned into the big fight that I guess everyone saw on the news.” Iris shrugged a little. The footage from TV hadn’t nearly captured the drama, but there was no need to make a big deal about it. 

“And while they were all fighting, the Martians kind of forgot about me, so I went to see what I could of the device they were building. We’d established that Martian technology is much more delicate than anything we have here on Earth, and that definitely checked out. I took a few pictures, and then, well…”

“You shot it,” said Wendy.

Someone off-camera laughed. “According to my source, the White Martians building this hyperspace device in the middle of Central would be the end of life here as we know it. They’d use it as a base for constant interstellar warfare. So I thought I might as well do my best to destroy it while they were busy. And it worked! But it also made them very, very mad. Then I was scared. I managed to film most of the time from then until when the Green Lantern finally got them contained in an energy field, though. So some of the footage you’ll see on TV and online is actually from my phone.”

“Wow,” Wendy said again. “And do you know where the Justice League took the Martians once they were ‘contained’?”

“All I can say is that it’s a safe place far from any human life,” Iris replied neutrally. “Again, I have to protect my sources. But I can tell you that the White Martian threat in Central City is a thing of the past. We’re safe for now.” She smiled at the camera.

“Thanks to you and the Justice League,” the reporter agreed. “You’ve developed quite a reputation for fearlessness in your journalism. Between the Singularity, the attacks from Zoom and the Metapocalypse, and now this — ”

“Oh, I’m definitely not fearless.” Iris smiled and shook her head. “Sometimes things are scary. But I’ve always believed that no matter how rough things get, it’s better to know the truth. Because you can have fear alone, or you can have fear and knowledge. And then at least you’re not just acting out of fear. I think if you trust people with the truth, they have the power to overcome the fear. And that power means even ordinary people can do great things.”

“Wise words.” Wendy looked at the camera. “This is Central City today. We’re here with the award-winning reporter and survivor of yesterday’s dramatic battle between the Justice League and the White Martians, Iris West.”

“Um.” Iris raised her left hand in the air a little, showing off the fine gold band around her ring finger. This wasn’t how she planned on telling people, but she hadn’t planned on a spontaneous wedding in the middle of an alien invasion, either. Somewhere between meeting the Justice League and actually defeating the White Martians, the whole scale of things had started to make it feel pointless to wait for what they both wanted. “It’s actually Iris West-Allen these days.”


End file.
